Green Vehicles

Recently, I have been thinking about hybrids a lot. Last week, I had a guest speaker come and talk to my class about hybrids, and specifically his own Prius. I was SOLD. Mostly, it was the 55 MPG combined Hwy/city rating, but it was also the regenerative breaking (how come no one has thought of this before?) and the 70% less fog-forming emissions than the average new vehicle. Did I mention the sweet interior and the keyless entry? I want one. I started looking into them, and they are clearly beyond my budget, but I think that as soon as my truck is paid for, I will start saving specifically for one. Who knows, by that time, the electric car might have come on the market again! Albuquerque just landed the bid to have Tesla (the electric car company) build a plant here. Yay! The Sierra Club recently released a list of the 12 greenest cars, and although a hybrid is not at the top, where are we really going to get natural gas to power up our cars. Besides, natural gas is just as non-renewable as oil. Not a good long term option, in my opinion. And neither is Ethanol, while we are at it. I have been a little freaked out about peak oil in the last few weeks. It seems that my brain has been bombarded with the message that "it's running out!!!". Today, I watched the End of Suburbia. It's a little "fire and brimstone" for me, but there is a good, and sobering, underlying message that we need to find an alternative. Maybe hybrid cars are not the most radical solution, but they seem better than ethanol, and if enough people got them, peak oil might come a little slower. (Or has it already come? 000h). In the mean time, I will just keep dreaming.